I love using PLEX Media Server and since all my DVDs have been backed up to my computer. I no longer need to take media to each different rooms of my house. So anyways I recently purchased a Fire TV Cube which is a hands-free Amazon TV experience. I liked using the Plex feature and I could ask it commands such as “Alexa, Ask Plex to Hackers” and it would load up the 1995 Movie Hackers. However it only worked sometimes.
I would always get the following errors:
- The Plex Companion was not running or could not be found.
- The Plex Default Video Player is not set. Would you like to set one now?
I was confused why I was getting these errors so I decided to ask a question on their forum.
Turns out I’ve been using the Fire Cube & Plex wrong all along. Alexa Skills can’t actually open apps by itself yet. So the Plex App has to already be running.
So every time you want to “Ask Plex” something via Alexa, you need to make sure Plex is running behind it. I totally understand it now.
So first you can say: “ Alexa, open Plex “.
Then once it’s opened you can trigger the Play command. “ Alexa, Ask Plex to Play Hot Tub Time Machine “.
- You can view the full command list here.
